Workforce

Inclusive, local hiring: Building the pipeline to a healthy community

Every day, we learn more about how patients’ health outcomes are tied not only to the healthcare they receive but also to the conditions in the communities where they live. Social and economic inequities, amplified by race, often emerge as the leading factors explaining differences in health outcomes and life expectancies.

Through local and inclusive hiring, health systems can invest in an ecosystem of success that lifts up local residents; helps create career pathways for low-income, minority, and hard-to-employ populations; and begins to transform neighborhoods. In the process, health systems can develop a more efficient workforce pipeline, meet sustainability and inclusion goals, and ultimately improve the health of their communities. Establishing a local and inclusive hiring strategy is an important first step towards rethinking your health system’s role in the community. This toolkit can help you get started.

Case Studies

In Cleveland, Ohio, University Hospitals is working in partnership with community- based organizations to connect diverse residents from high-poverty neighborhoods to available frontline positions, and then intentionally to internal career development...

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative is building the local workforce capacity to meet anchor institutions’ (including health systems’) hiring needs, and connecting diverse residents from high- poverty neighborhoods to ...

In Aurora, Colorado, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is prioritizing community engagement and partnering with local workforce intermediaries to provide training to diverse, local residents for high-need, high-turnover jobs.

In Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins University & Health System is connecting forecasting, training, and hiring departments to create a workforce strategy that prioritizes hiring diverse, local residents, and then providing intentional internal career...

Key Strategies

Expanding employment opportunities for local residents by tackling barriers to employment

Health systems that equip local residents for high-demand jobs through training and skills development, and connect these candidates to pipelines that provide entry points to the institution, improve the efficiency of their own recruiting and hiring processes and expand employment opportunities for residents. Learn more about outside-in strategies

Local hiring initiatives do not end at the moment of hire. The success of programs lies in connecting frontline workers to pathways for career advancement within the institution—ensuring a sustainable, effective program and a pipeline to opportunity for local communities. Learn more about inside-up strategies

Tyler Norris, Vice President of Total Health Partnerships, Kaiser Permanente and Ted Howard, President and co-founder, The Democracy Collaborative, make the case for a new anchor mission for healthcare institutions.

The Democracy Collaborative's set of indicators designed to help institutions reflect and assess broadly the long-term impact of their anchor-mission activities—particularly their impact on low-income communities.

An overview of the Atlanta Beltline Workforce Partnership in Healthcare.

If you are interested in print copies of these toolkits, or would like to know more about how The Democracy Collaborative can support their use at your institution, please contact kparker@democracycollaborative.org.